Espanyol confirm Jese interest

Espanyol have confirmed their interest in Real Madrid forward Jese Rodriguez as CEO Roman Robert rolls out their Chinese owners’ ambitious plans.

Espanyol are embarking on their first summer since being taken over by Chinese company Rastar Group and recently appointed Quique Sanchez Flores as their new Coach, and Robert revealed the Champions League was Los Periquitos’ ultimate dream, reflected by the nature of their transfer targets.

“[Jese’s] an option. I don’t know if he’ll be an Espanyol player, but he’s not about to join,” he told AS.

“[Jose Antonio Reyes] is on our list, plus these three [referring to Alvaro Negredo, Giuseppe Rossi and Fernando Llorente] and many more.

“What we can say is that the team will consist of players that the fans are guaranteed to enjoy, so that they don’t suffer.

“We’d love for Marco [Asensio] to continue his loan spell at Espanyol. We hope he does, but if not then we’ll have to cover his position.

“We’re very happy with his development and he’s an option that we’d love to take.

“We haven’t set an exact budget for transfers. We’re looking at many opportunities, some require purchasing, while others are free.

“We know what squad we want for next season in order to make the jump. If there’s a good chance [of signing a target] then won’t let it escape.

“[Tonny Vilhena] is an interesting player, but right now we have nothing signed with him. It’s not near or far [from being completed].

“[On Alvaro Gonzalez], we have a meeting with Alvaro agent but only because we’ve met the agents of all our players. He hasn’t received any offers from Rubin Kazan.

“There will be several new faces, although I can’t say if they’ll arrive tomorrow or the day after. The objective is to finalise them as soon as possible for the sake of the club.

“We have several fronts [to work on]. No-one’s been signed yet, but that doesn’t mean things won’t work out.

“Hopefully we have [new players] as soon as possible but that they cohere because in the end we’ll have the team that we have.

“We’re thinking about playing the Champions League and we want to be in it. We’re all working towards this final milestone, but to do so we need to be a team who qualify for Europe permanently. We have to qualify for Europe first if we want to end up being a top European team.

“I won’t speak of revolution but a market opportunity for arrivals and departures and the beginning of a road to where we want to take the club in the next few years.

“We want to establish ourselves in the top eight, and the objective for this season is not to finish outside the top 10.”

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